Archive for March, 2010

Don’t forget the Annual RAA POA Member Meeting, Saturday, March 20 at 1000 AM. This year the meeting will be at 9400 Rolling Hills Trail, Lago Vista, TX 78645. It is George Eeds’s hangar on the East side of the runway. Please bring a chair to sit on. Barbeque to follow the meeting.

This year there are three open positions for the RAA POA board. The vacancies are for Alan Anderson, who resigned since he sold his last lot and is no longer a property owner. Alan we miss you. Jim Awalt, who after two exceptional terms, six years, has contributed so much in foresight, management, coordination with the city & TxDot and fathered our ten year agreement with the city. Jim, we will miss you! And finally, Ray Chatelain, who we ALL are so VERY, VERY grateful for being on the board longer than dirt, well, about four terms! He has saved us thousand upon thousands of dollars in handling our accounting, bill paying, dues collection, parking collection, banking, finances, state and federal filings. Ray, we will miss you!

However, we have three most qualified nominees to fill the POA board. Claudette Colwell, Rick Crider and Mike Schaffer. They are all most qualified and willing to serve our community and to help keep our airport financially strong provide strong business and airport experience and they want to see that our airport prospers and continues to operate as safely and efficiently as it has over the years. They have provided autobiographies of themselves, which I have included below.

In addition, I am attaching a ballot that I ask that you print off, vote and bring with you to the meeting or give it to someone along with your proxy. You can also, fill them in and fax, both the proxy and ballot to 512-458-8376 if you canâ€™t attend the meeting.

Also, on the ballot is one position for the Lago Vista Airport Advisory Board (AAB) which the POA nominates to the city. Jim Wood who has been filling in on the AAB for years, attends every meeting and has added a great deal to our airport future has volunteered to serve. Thank you Jim.

As spring approaches, the downhill Olympian are skiing and the lake is filling up, it must be time for our annual RAA POA membership meeting which is required to be held every March. This year the meeting is scheduled for Saturday, March 20, at 1000 AM at
9400 Rolling Hills Trail or better known as George Eedâ€™s hangar. We will have free, actually we all are paying for it, barbeque following the meeting. Please make an effort to come if you can or if you can not attend please give or mail your proxy and ballot, which is attached, to someone who will be at the meeting.

This is our first full year under our new user agreement with the city. As a re-cap, the RAA POA is required to pay the city $20,000 by July first every year for the use of the airport. In return for our usage fee they agree to keep the airport open and maintained, keep the lights and AWOS running and grass cut. This year in order to pay that fee we have sent out our annual bill, which you have already received, for $250 per lot owed on January 1. If you own multiple lots and have not officially had them re-plated into one, you owe $250 for each lot. If you have had them re-plated provide us with a copy of the official plat. The money was due and payable to RAA POA by the end of January so please ensure you have paid and if you havenâ€™t please send your check to 304 Flightline, Lago Vista, TX 78645. As a note, the by laws allow the board to set the annual membership fee and only if the board asks for additional funds will a membership vote be required.

In addition to the fee owed by each lot owner, each permanently based aircraft must also pay $250 annually. Our by laws state we must collect from each tenant aircraft and our agreement with the city states it as well. If you rent space in your hangar to an operable airplane, they too must pay the $250. It is each land lordâ€™s responsibility to get the RAA POA the based aircraft fee. Please collect it from your tenants and send it to us along with the N number, persons name, email address and phone number. The board has decided this is only fair since they have the same use of the airport that lot owners have.

The agreement with the city also gives the RAA POA the right to collect for parked vehicles on the car parking lot and the airplane ramp. We are keeping track, as best we can, of who is parking. The fees for parked aircraft are $400 annually (includes the $250 usage fee), $50 / month and $5 / night. The fee for cars / trailers is $100 annually, $20 / month and free overnight. So if you have a vehicle parked in the car parking lot be sure and send your check in or drop it off in the pay box, (which we moved to the kiosk by the fuel pump). Be sure and include your N number, License plate number, vehicle / plane description, name, email address and phone number.

By collecting these fees from ALL of the airport users and parkers we hope to be able to help keep our (lot owners) fees down. Besides, it is only fair everyone pay for using the facility. We will see how our collection goes this year and adjust the dues next year, down I hope! So please help out by paying ASAP if you havenâ€™t already for you, your tenant aircraft and any vehicle parking on the vehicle parking lot. There are currently seven vehicles there so this can really help in keeping our annual dues at bay. Additionally, there are five airplanes permanently parked on the ramp, again helping to keep our dues down.

To aid in our collection process we have moved the overnight parking pay box to the kiosk next to the fuel pump and posted a new â€œPAY HEREâ€ sign there. Additionally we have posted a new sign by the vehicle parking lot and a sign reminding people to pay as they leave the airport. As a side note we installed an additional wi-fi antenna repeater antenna on the east side of the airport giving access to the internet to the entire airport now. By the way, the wi-fi costs us about $600 annually.

At the end of last year we collected a substantial amount of money from one owner, two lots that have been liened for years along with back interest and lien fees. This was a nice bonus for the RAA POA bank account and future expenses. We continue to lien properties, as required by the by laws, for non payment and keep them liened until we collect past dues, interest and lien fees ($200/lien). We hate doing it, it is VERY time consuming for us and expensive to have a lien drawn up and filed. It is real pain for us board members to keep tracking people down. Please help us out and pay on time.

As always, fly safe out there and letâ€™s keep the Rusty Allen Airport a Safe, Friendly & Fun airport. Hope to see you March 20th and please keep those comments coming in.

Sincerely,

Rich Piasecki
VP RAA POA
raa_poa@yahoo.com

ps; We do most of our correspondence all year and annual meeting via email. I continually send out notices of airport notices and things going on around the airport all year. I DO NOT have your email address so please send me an email to: raa_poa@yahoo.com

Also, send me your name, the name of the company you hold your lot in if applicable, mailing address and phone number(s).